Action points based on findings

·         Secure funding for the implementation of the national victim assistance plan.

·         Include survivors in the planning and coordination of all aspects of victim assistance.

·         Ensure that government assistance for mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors is comprehensive and includes economic inclusion and psychological support, as well as medical assistance and physical rehabilitation.

·         Improve linkages between Yemen Mine Action Center (YEMAC) and the Ministry of Social Affair’s Disability Fund (MOSUL) to ensure more effective coordination and improved access to needed services and programs for all mine/ERW survivors and persons with disabilities.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Yemen is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW who are in need. Yemen has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

In 2013, the Monitor identified 55 casualties from mines and ERW from YEMAC casualty data and other sources.[1] There were no casualties among soldiers identified in 2013; the vast majority of casualties (49 of 55) were civilians and the rest were casualties among deminers. The six deminer casualties represent a significant decrease compared with the 19 deminer casualties in 2012.[2]

The percentage of child mine/ERW casualties continued to be high, as in past years. Of the total casualties for 2013, there were 40 children, representing 73% of the total civilian casualties; 32 of these were boys; there were eight casualties among girls.[3] Nearly two-thirds of child casualties were caused by ERW as opposed to approximately half of casualties overall. Three of nine adult casualties who were not deminers were women; this represented a much higher proportion of casualties than in 2012 when women made up just 1% of all casualties.

The 55 casualties recorded in 2013 was a significant decrease compared with the 263 casualties recorded for 2012; however, it was higher than the 19 recorded in 2011 and similar to the 52 casualties identified in 2010.[4] The casualty total for 2012 was the highest annual number recorded by the Monitor for Yemen since research began in 1999 and was due to the increased population movement immediately after fighting subsided in early 2012.[5] It was also, at least in part, attributed to suspected new use of mines in the governorates of Sana’a, Sada’a, Hajjah, and Abyan in 2011–2012.[6]

Through the end of 2013, there were at least 5,840 mine/ERW casualties identified in Yemen.[7] A Landmine Impact Survey had identified 4,904 casualties through July 2000, of which 2,560 people were killed and 2,344 were injured.[8] In 2010, it was reported in the media that there were 35,000 mine/ERW casualties in Yemen since 1995.[9]

Cluster munition casualties

A cluster munition strike in Yemen in December 2009 was reported to have killed 55 people, including 14 women and 21 children.[10] No confirmed cluster munition remnants casualties have been reported.[11]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 2,828 survivors registered in Yemen as of end of 2013.[12]

Victim assistance since 1999

Yemen’s mine action center established a victim assistance department in 2001 with the aim of helping mine/ERW survivors access medical care, physical rehabilitation, and economic reintegration assistance. It coordinated, if sporadically, with survivors to identify and access survivors living in rural areas. This department’s program, supported with international assistance, has covered the cost of treatment, transport, and accommodation of survivors who receive health and rehabilitation services. International organizations and NGOs have supported Yemen’s physical rehabilitation centers since 2001, with ICRC support continuing to the present.

Each year, the victim assistance department’s program has a targeted number of survivors to reach, though it has nearly always fallen short of its target. Survivors not assisted through this program have faced significant challenges to access assistance due to the centralization of services in urban centers, far from where most survivors are. Women have faced particular challenges since cultural norms generally require that they travel with a male family member.

The economic reintegration component of the national victim assistance program was begun in 2004 with the establishment of the Yemen Association of Landmine Survivors (YALS) as the mine action center’s implementing partner for these activities. However, in most years, there has not been sufficient funding to implement this component as planned. Psychosocial support has never been included in the victim assistance department’s program and has not been widely available in Yemen. However some local NGOs, including YALS, have offered this support when possible given limited budgets.

Increasing levels of violence and insecurity led to the suspension of the victim assistance program in 2011 and prevented many survivors from traveling to needed services. For example, the Aden Rehabilitation Center, one of only four in the country, suspended its outreach program and its plans to build a new rehabilitation center, with support from ICRC, remained on hold through 2013.

Victim assistance in 2013

YEMAC reached a significantly larger number of survivors in 2013 than they had in 2011 or 2012, facilitating their access to medical care and physical rehabilitation. However, as the security situation worsened once again near the end of 2013, most survivors continued to face significant challenges in accessing all needed services. YALS lacked sufficient funding to address the demand for its economic inclusion and psychosocial support programs. No progress was identified in the implementation of the National Victim Assistance Strategic Plan 2010–2014 and survivors did not participate in the coordination and planning of victim assistance.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2013, YEMAC surveyed 750 survivors of armed conflict, including mine/ERW survivors, in nine districts of the governorate of Abyan. The survey assessed the needs of survivors; results were shared with the Mine Action Working Group in Aden.[13] YEMAC also carried out a medical survey of 911 mine/ERW survivors in 51 villages in Abyan and Hajjah[14] to determine medical and physical rehabilitation needs of survivors.[15] The number of survivors reached for a medical assessment was a significant increase compared with other recent years; 295 survivors were surveyed in 2012 and just 89 in 2011.[16] YEMAC attributed this increase to the fact that, in 2013, they surveyed parts of the country that had been the site of intense armed conflict in 2011 and 2012 and thus areas with high numbers of recent mine/ERW survivors and other survivors of the armed conflict who could not be reached during the armed conflict.[17]

Victim assistance coordination[18]

While the Victim Assistance Advisory Committee remained inactive, the planning and coordination of victim assistance was discussed at meetings of the Mine Action Working Group in 2013. The purpose of the meetings was to improve collaboration among victim assistance service providers and other stakeholders and to avoid duplication of efforts. YEMAC delegated coordination with the MOSUL to YALS.[19]

In 2013, no significant progress was made in implementing the National Victim Assistance Strategic Plan 2010–2014.[20] YEMAC indicated that it did not monitor the implementation of the plan in 2013.[21] The Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation integrated the Victim Assistance Strategic Plan into 2014 national plans submitted to donor states.[22]

Yemen provided an update on the details of its victim assistance program in its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2013 but did not provide any update at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2013.[23]

Survivor inclusion

In 2013, neither mine/ERW survivors nor their representative organizations were included in the planning and coordination of victim assistance.[24] YALS held ad hoc meetings with the Disability Fund to facilitate access to services for its members and also to meet as possible with other government ministries to advocate on behalf of its members.[25]

Through YALS, survivors were involved in implementing income-generating projects, collecting data on the needs of other survivors and in distributing mobility devices and other assistance.[26]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[27]

Emergency and ongoing medical care

Government support via YEMAC for medical care and rehabilitation for mine/ERW survivors, stalled in 2011 and resumed in 2012, increased in 2013. YEMAC assessed the medical and rehabilitation needs of more than 900 survivors. It referred and provided transport to 322 of the survivors surveyed to hospitals in Aden and Sana’a for medical care.[28] A survey of mine/ERW survivors in three districts of Sana’a where landmines were used in 2011 and 2012 found health services in these areas to be “very poor” with limited to no capacity to provide specialized emergency care following a mine incident. Many survivors did not receive basic care needed after their incidents because, as one survivor reported, “we were forced to hide our disabilities and our crutches fearing questioning and investigations.”[29]

International organizations such as the ICRC and MSF made efforts to sustain increased emergency relief, but planned activities continued to be hampered by unpredictable insecurity that prevented access to certain parts of the country.[30] Starting in May, the ICRC restricted staff movements and in December, temporarily suspended the operations of its sub-delegation in Amran.[31] Due to insecurity, MSF were forced to suspend their activities twice in Amran and once in Aden, further reducing access to medical care in these areas. Near the end of the year, MSF also saw a sharp rise in demand for surgeries in response to conflict-related injuries in Amran.[32]

Physical rehabilitation

Poor security conditions, the lack of service providers, and poverty, all of which made transportation and accommodation inaccessible, were the main obstacles in accessing physical rehabilitation in 2013, especially for mine/ERW survivors living in rural areas. A lack of female rehabilitation professionals prevented women from accessing needed services.[33] YEMAC facilitated access to physical rehabilitation for 258 survivors from Abyan and Amran, conflict-affected areas, and referred many persons with disabilities to MOSUL for assistance.[34] While the number of people accessing rehabilitation through ICRC-supported centers increased by 80% compared to 2012, the number of survivors receiving prosthetics in 2013 decreased to almost half the number who received this attention in the previous year.[35]

The rehabilitation center in Aden, which had already suspended its outreach service in 2011, was handed over to the Ministry of Health in 2013; no information was available as to how this handover impacted access to rehabilitation for those mine/ERW survivors living in Aden.[36] The ICRC continued to provide support to four rehabilitation centers throughout the country and made improvements to centers in Aden, Taiz, and Sana’a. At the center in Sana’a, the ICRC supported the construction of a designated physiotherapy building for women and children to overcome obstacles women and children had faced in accessing services. The ICRC continued to sponsor formal prosthetics and orthotics training for four women to address lack of female professionals.[37]

Survey interviews in Sana’a showed that most landmine survivors recently injured (in 2011 and 2012) had not received assistance in getting prosthetic limbs and other rehabilitation services. Some survivors felt that the care that was available was inadequate and traveled to Egypt to get better quality assistance. Another survivor reported a long waiting period between having measurements taken and receiving his new limb.[38]

Economic Inclusion

YALS undertook economic inclusion activities in six governorates of Yemen in 2013, providing vocational training, supporting access to education, and initiating livelihood projects for mine/ERW survivors. YALS also supported survivors to access benefits and support from MOSUL. By the end of 2013, YALS had included just 20% of all registered survivors in economic inclusion activities due to a lack of funding.[39] The ICRC provided income-generating support to 190 households with persons with disabilities in Abyan and Taiz.[40]

Psychological Support

YALS and a few national NGOs such as the AHRF continued to provide psychosocial support to mine survivors in some areas of Yemen.[41] None of the survivors interviewed from Sana’a had received any psychological support.[42]

Laws and Policies

Legislation protects the rights of persons with disabilities, but they were poorly enforced and discrimination remained. No national law mandated accessibility of buildings for persons with disabilities.[43] No improvements in physical accessibility were identified in 2013.[44]

Yemen ratified the CRPD on 26 March 2009. The Social Fund for Development and the Special Needs Association held workshops to raise awareness about the CRPD and the rights of persons with disabilities, targeting government ministries and NGOs.[45]